We walked around and after being directed by some kind strangers, found a dungeon for people below forty average in stats. It was only a couple of streets away so the search didn't take long.
Mads swayed and pulled on my ear, singing a rap song in a language I didn't recognise. The past month I tried to learn that English of hers, but I didn't recognise whatever she was speaking in now. It was full of rustling sounds. After a couple of verses, I finally couldn't fight my curiosity.
"What are you singing?" I asked, turning towards her, as I walked down a flight of stairs into the underground.
"A magicians song about being a god," she paused to answer and got back to singing. Once I stepped into the hall for people waiting for their turn to enter the dungeon, she moved on to just humming.
There were a couple of groups, standing loosely and waiting for their turn. Everyone seemed to be in their late teens or early twenties. I walked past two human groups and stopped before a receptionist, sitting inside a glass cubicle.
"Hello, we would like to register for a delve," I said. The mouse-kin wiggled the large ears, on the sides of his head and his eyes flashed blue.
"Alright, here is your number. Have a pleasant and safe delving experience," he said dispassionately and turned back to his computer. As he was fixing his earphones, I tapped on the glass. He did not give me the number-slip.
The man gave me an irritated look and sluggishly lifted the piece of paper onto the counter. He then waved us off and began typing.
I pocketed the ticket and walked around the cubicle. I looked over at the screen... the man was collecting herbs in some old-school MMO. I lifted my right eyebrow and shrugged. Farm levels in games during work-hours, improve your soul in dungeons after work, was a rather common practice among nerds.
Though, usually, people played games that required you to power your character with your own mana. The old-school stuff offered no benefits. Still, a lot of people thought that experiencing adventures in hyper VR was more than enough for them. I shrugged and shelved that train of thought. Mom always said I shouldn't judge others.
I looked over to the dungeon gate, a hole in the ground that looked as if something smashed through. There was a gate resembling a magic and metal detector, standing before the hole. At the top of its arch, was a small screen showing the number "14". I looked down on my ticket, it was "19". I sat down where I stood and began practising shaping mana.
After a while, three teenagers walked up to us. They looked like bland humans, two of them had pale skin and blonde hair, while the last one had a slightly darker complexion. I wasn't sure if the last guy was just tanned, or of some darker-skinned ethnicity. He looked local. Though, I never knew how it was with humans.
"Kids shouldn't play around dungeons, are you lost?" the guy in the middle asked in an angry tone.
"Did we offend you somehow?" I responded, nodding my head. Diada didn't seem to notice someone was talking to us and Mads just hummed while looking at the ceiling.
"Offend? You brats just shouldn't be here, you can get hurt." the teenager continued to press.
I wasn't sure what his problem was. Dungeon creations couldn't get out and we couldn't get in unless the guard permitted us. "Why?"
"Dungeons are dangerous, you mutt." the guy crossed his arms before his chest and leaned over, to look down at me.
Wasn't mutt for dogs? I tilted my head. Actually, did they not notice Mads and Diada? Most people wouldn't bother someone that looked like a noble. I whispered "Provide Status". The three were plain, High Humans. Not a drop of nobility in them. I glanced over to the girls, maybe their inhuman features weren't visible?
The middle guy continued to peer down on me, but his friend on the left whispered "Provide Status." Moments later, his eyes widened and he tapped the middle teenager.
"What?" the aggressive guy growled and turned around. "They're..." "Oh, whatever... Provide status." The teen's eyes widened when he looked in my direction. Then he paled when he looked over to Mads and began to tremble a little after looking at Diada.
"We just wanted to be helpful, you know?" The boy said and abruptly turned around and walked away stiffly. The one on the left nodded his head to us, "I apologise for my companion's rudeness," and followed. Finally, the dark-skinned teen stood in place for a little bit, looking between us and his friends. In the end, he nodded his head to me and run over to the other two.
"So... that was weird," Mads said and got back to humming. I nodded, teenagers were weird. There weren't even any girls for them to show off to. "Humans."
"Humans," the little devil repeated and giggled. "I used to be a human, though."
I patted her on the head. She leaned into my palm but quickly shrugged off my hand. "Thanks, I've been a bit on edge lately."
"I've got you stuck in my head..." she sang softly and swayed to some rhythm, only she could hear. I shrugged and got bumped on the head by Diada. "Don't move."
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Finally, our turn came up and we jumped into the dungeon entrance. We fell for a while and after passing through the film of liquid, found ourselves in a wide underground pass. The grey tiles lining the walls and the floor were cracked and dirty.
The line separating the corridor in the middle was pried out of the ground in places and it's pieces laid here and there. The long lights in the ceiling would go out every few second and restart with some plimping noises. I looked back and the way behind us was blocked by rubble covering a flight of stairs that would go up.
I jumped off Tom and landed behind his back, to keep him as our frontline. Diada probed the ceiling and when she found the tiles in it didn't move, hang on it with her spider-legs. "Let's go?" she asked and skittered around. I and the cat nodded and we began to walk.
Our steps reverberated through the empty corridor, coming back as an echo, promising that something will hear us and come to offer a violent greeting.
After a while, the walls opened into empty, abandoned stores and restaurants with broken glass doors and windows. We looked through them, but there wasn't anything of note to find. I wondered if this dungeon even had monsters, maybe it was more of a traps and puzzles challenge.
The echo made it hard to tell if there was something walking around, or it was just the sound of our steps coming back from all directions.
"This is kind of boring, isn't it?" I said into the air and the echo responded in fragmented sounds. I tilted my head, one of the responses sounded strange, but I couldn't tell which direction it came from.
Tom raised his hand and we stopped walking. We waited until the echo died down and he gestured for us to continue. After a couple of steps, he raised his hand again. We repeated the process a couple of times and finally, the boy waved for us to get into a place filled with ripped apart books.
In the dust covering the counter, he wrote, "Something is following us." I gave him a questioning gaze and he added, "There is another set of steps echoing."
We stilled and strained our ears. I couldn't hear anything, but Tom was looking in the direction we came from and occasionally twitching his ears. I gave up on trying to catch whatever he was hearing and began drawing in the dust. I was almost done making the cats portrait when Diada suddenly turned to the corridor.
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I focused again and there was the slightest whisper of something shuffling outside, just around the corner. Silently, with a couple of puffs of mana, I flew out. In the corridor, stood two furry, humanoid creatures. They looked half-cooked and in spots, they were missing their skin and flesh.
One looked like a castrated man with a head of an overgrown rat shoved onto its shoulders, while the other seemed to be a mutt walking on its hind legs. They smelled like a combination of rotting flesh and the back of a fast-food restaurant. I stopped myself from gagging and shot four messy fireballs.
The uncovered skin of the monsters merely took on a more cooked tone. The creatures screeched and threw themselves towards me, missing by a long shot and falling in a tumble on the ground. I heard bones breaking, but the monsters swiftly got back up. Now they were bent and twisted in all directions, some of their bones sticking out through their skin and ruptured flesh. Their pungent smell intensified, forcing me to boost away.
I skidded on the ground and stopped with a screech on shards of broken glass.
By now, Tom run out and with a flourish cut into the fried dog. The thing fell apart easily enough, but it's head-side, continued to screech and began to crawl towards the cat.
Taking advantage of the kitten's momentary gap in defence, the rat-monster lunged with outstretched claws - formed from broken bones sticking out of its fingers.
Just as it was about to cut into the boy, Diada fell from the ceiling, skewering the creature with all eight of her legs. She spread her limbs and ripped the monster apart into eight shish-kebabs.
I blasted a manaball at the somehow surviving dog and splattered its head.
Tom clamped his free hand on his nose and backpedalled towards me, to get out of range of the smell. The spiderling let the flesh slid off her limbs and joined us, grumbling something about an unhygienic kitchen.
"Where the fuck did they come from?" I thought out loud and followed the cat, as he was already walking away.
"I think this one has random spawns," Tom answered while looking over his shoulder and rubbed his nose. "They stink."
"Really? I can't tell the difference from the mortal food you usually eat." Diada threw from the ceiling while swinging past the boy.
Was it truly so terrible for her? I shrugged. Though, her burgers were quite divine. If you were used to such cooking, you'd probably consider even the highest rated restaurants to be rotten streetfood.
The next group of monsters we run into was significantly larger. Skinned and crudely stitched together flesh-things, poured out of restaurants on both sides of the corridor, filling it from side to side with a wall four or five bodies deep.
Tom shimmered and became a thin, see-through visage. I gathered mana above my head, forming three mana-panes. In the middle of each one of them, I formed a small manaball with small spikes on their fronts.
Four monsters - humanoid figures formed from smashed together housecats - crawled on the ceiling towards Diada.
A cacophony of screeches, gurgles, inhuman cries and tearing flesh, exploded from the pack and the monsters attacked.
A second cat split from Tom and drew a couple of creatures away into a shop on the right. The boy himself, cut through the monsters just in front of him. Then withdrew in two steps, keeping his sword steady and pointed at the less limb deficient abominations.
I sent two panes into the mass of flesh, cutting through one layer of creatures. Then, I let the balls explode, ripping open the waists of two monsters.
Suddenly, something impacted on my last manapane. I looked up and found four, disfigured cats on top of it. With a burst of mana, I sent to pane into the ceiling, smashing the unfinished cooking experiments. I took a step forward and let the resulting meaty soup, slid and splatter on the ground.
The monsters that followed Toms clone let out victorious howls and streamed back into the corridor. The boy seemed to be managing the main pack just fine, using some bodies as shields and cutting through heads with precise strikes. He kept a good distance from the monsters, with a manablade elongating his sword.
I charged two lumps of mana above my horns and turned to the now unoccupied monsters. I nodded my head and boosted in a zigzag over them, pelting them with weak manaballs.
"Back to recycling assholes!!" I yelled and threw one of the lumps at a combination of rats and pigeons. The monster fell apart into the smaller creatures. Before they could collect themselves, the larger ones trampled them in their rush towards me.
I zoomed into a shop and landed on a tall shelf at the back. The enraged creatures tripped over the broken furniture in their mad scramble to rip me apart. I breathed out and turned the lump brimming with mana into a mad shape of blades and spikes.
Once the monsters were beneath me I blasted the spell into them and boosted outside. I gathered mana into two new lumps and with a couple of puffs turned around and landed on the ground. The flesh-things seemed to be in no shape to follow so I turned towards Tom.
He barely weaved through a gap in monsters and twirled, cutting through an arm with a flourish. I sent a couple of manaballs into the knees of the monsters, giving him some space to breathe. The boy resettled into a proper stance and with a yell cut horizontally.
He let go of his illusion, making it seem as if he popped back into existence. The cat let out a roar, causing the remaining monsters to flinch.
Diada took the opportunity to fall, landing her limbs through the heads of the creatures. She made a confused face and after a pause, boosted up, spreading her legs and twirling. The monsters flew off and crashed into walls and their companions.
Half-way done.
Tom finished off the creatures closest to him and I blasted the two blade-lumps into the remaining pack. One of the spells barely missed Tom and I looked sideways. "Wasn't me..."
I gathered mana next to my legs and took a moment to rest.
My plan to boost over the monsters and cut off their heads with panes didn't come to be. Before I finished gathering enough mana, Diada went through them like a ball of angry skewers.
I tilted my head and shrugged.
"Let's get away from the stench and rest for a bit," Tom yelled towards me and waved. I was still good on mana reserves, but forming the more complicated constructs during a battle tired me out mentally, so I didn't argue.
We got out of range of the reek, after a much longer distance than I expected. We reached the first crossing in the dungeon and took a sit in a corner cafe. A broken radio played static from somewhere, providing rather surprisingly soothing ambience.
I stretched in my sit and tapped on the table, raising my hands over my head. I could barely look over the edge of the table. Tom lounged in his chair and was cleaning his sword, Diada on the other hand simply stretched herself on the table and looked at the ceiling.
"It would be nice to order some sugar with coffee," I grumbled and rested my forehead on the table, letting my hands hang down.
As if to answer my request, someone's grumbling reached our ears. The only issue was that it came from the corridor. I sighed and boosted outside.
The lights seemed to have dimmed down while we were resting, covering anything a shop or two away in darkness. I looked around and noticed a small shape to the left.
Diada hanged above me and lowered herself, so our heads would be at the same level. Tom took a spot to my right, in the middle of the corridor.
The shape noticed us and sped up it's waddling. It looked a little like a toy-shark and wore a brown, hooded robe. In one of its hands, it held a knife and in the other a small lantern. Its grumbles became louder, but I didn't understand what tongue it spoke in.
"Is it a monster?" I asked.
With a tense voice, Tom whispered, "One hundred percent and we don't want it to get close."
Well, I recognised the thing. The cute little murder machine was supposed to be a rather deadly creature. I pushed as much mana as I could into a single spell, forming a javelin of infernal flames.
Diada dropped in front of us and pierced her legs into the ground and bending them all over to form a wire fence.
Tom crouched and his entire body began shimmering with mana. He took a stance to lunge his sword forward and we waited.
Once the creature reached the light it paused and yelled something. I shot my spell and missed as the creature slammed its knife into Diadas legs.
Tom exploded with violence and slammed his sword deep into the monsters head. The fish didn't seem bothered by the blade in its skull and ineffectively waved its arms at us.
The spiderling withdrew her limbs and we observed the miserable thing for a while. Its grumbling got louder and a small flame began to trickle out of its lantern, gathering above its head.
"Nothing to it." With these words, I let out a cascade of manablades. Diada joined in and we kept going until we could no longer hear the monsters voice.
As soon as we were done, Tom collapsed in a heap. "Out of mana... that thing was strong."
I patted him on the head. "Good job!"
"I will take the robe, it will look quite nice hanging in my room." Diada declared and stripped the cute fish.
"Then..." I started and walked over to the carcass. The lamp maybe would be nice, but... I picked up the knife. As a weapon held by something about the same size as me, its handle was just right for my tiny hands. The blade looked rather dull, so I tested it on the corpse.
I barely left a scratch on the scales, but after a moment, they blackened and began peeling off the monster as if its body became diseased. "I like it... but..." I turned to the cat. "Would you prefer the knife or the lamp?"
With a strained grunt, Tom sat up and looked over at our spoils. He focused on the two items, waving his hand above both. "The lantern seems to have something to do with illusions, so I will take it..." he said and looked at me, "You want a weapon that's finally your size anyway, right?"
I nodded and put the kitchen knife in my pouch. "Hopefully, there won't be more of these and we can rest."
"They're a rare spawn in curses related dungeons... if they were common here, the dungeon would probably get closed until they got removed from the spawns." The boy explained and laid back down. "Keep an eye out, if you could..."
I nodded and heard light snoring. The kid fell asleep immediately. Just how strong was the thing, that he needed to drain all of his mana to keep it at bay? I shrugged. We had some nice loot.